Funciferous Friday

Godzilla Haiku – Just like the title says, these are haikus composed by the rampaging monster, each accompanied by a photo. Aside from the poetry instruction possibilities, the juxtaposition of the traditional Japanese verse next to the stereotypical Japanese monster is hilarious!

Social:

Chilean earthquake – Nine days after the devastating quake in Chile, The Big Picture assembled this collection of images.

Kenya – TBP has a fascinating collection that offers a glimpse into Kenya, a country that most of us may be familiar with from World Vision ads, but that has much more to it than starving children.

French lunches – Time magazine article on how French schools are teaching their students about the importance of eating right through their in-school lunch program.

Week in Rap – Every Friday, rapper Flocabulary releases a summary of the most important news of the week, in rap. This might be a good way to interest students in current events, since it’s presented in a contemporary way.

Art:

Architecture as art – TBP’s collection of buildings presently being constructed for Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China. The Expo runs from May through October, with 70 million visitors expected to go through the site.

PhysEd:

Paralympics – TBP’s collection of photos from the 2010 Paralympic Games in Vancouver. Inspiring to see.

Science:

Quantum mechanics – Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have managed to observe quantum effects on a larger scale than ever before possible. They created a 30-micrometer drum that, because of quantum mechanics, is simultaneously in motion and at rest.

Mesofacts – Mesofacts are a category of slowly-changing facts about the world around us, which are updated without us really paying attention to them, like the population of the planet, or the elements on the periodic table.

Media:

Aviary – Now free, the Aviary is a collection of online media editing tools, from an online alternative to Photoshop to an effects editor to an online recording studio. Did I mention it’s all free?

Paris – A 26 gigapixel photo of Paris that is fully zoomable to see the Eiffel Tower, l’Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre and Notre Dame all in one photo. Amazing!

Education:

Obsolescence – Shelly Blake-Plock of Teach Paperless has come up with a list of things presently in education which will be rendered obsolete through technology in the next 10 years. Not everything on the list makes sense (lockers? really?), but there are some good points for discussion.

8 conditions for student success – The Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations has put together a list of 8 conditions they believe are necessary for all students to achieve their potential in school.

Unprepared – A conversation on what to do when students come to class without having prepared required material ahead of time.

Miscellaneous:

Secret Menus – Many restaurants have dishes available that don’t show up on their printed menus. Here is a guide to these secret dishes from various (American) restaurants.

Trailer spoof – This hilarious parody shows exactly the formula required to make an Oscar-worthy film.

The Sandpit – Using tilt-shift and time-lapse photography, this video shows a day in the life of New York City, in miniature.

Sites that changed the internet – A collection of 15 sites that changed the way users interact with the internet, from online shopping to blogging to video.

March madness – No, not that March madness. It’s the first ever Muppet-off! Vote for your favourite Muppet from The (Sesame) Street, The (Muppet) Show, The (Fraggle) Rock and The Rest. It all culminates April 5th with the crowning of a champion.

Poison control – In a bid to get funding restored, the Illinois Poison control centre published a “day in the life” look at all the calls they field about toxins. Most interesting were the calls from the ER and doctors who also use the centre for treatment advice.

Ian Hecht is a teacher of French, Science, History and Communication Production Technology at the largest high school in Saskatchewan, Canada. He runs Marturia.net on the side and designs websites and multimedia presentations for non-profit organisations. You can contact Ian by clicking the e-mail link at the top of the page.